


Bad Luck

by Cucuxumusu



Category: Bleach
Genre: Autumn Fic, Existential Crisis, Hurt/Comfort, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, Oblivious Kurosaki Ichigo, Poor Grimmjow, Rural Setting, Spiris & Ghosts, halloween fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-08 01:01:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cucuxumusu/pseuds/Cucuxumusu
Summary: One of the most famous writers from Japan, Ichigo Kurosaki, goes back to his family's traditional house to look for inspiration and some peace of mind. When he arrives however, he finds a crumbling house, a town stopped in time, and whole different world that he seems to have forgotten. Magic, spirits and myths seem to be real, and Ichigo might have found his own personal one.





	1. Into the wilderness

_ “Never go into the deepest parts of the forest _

_ for there are many dangers awaiting you there.” _

_ \- Grandma Kurosaki. _

The mountains were as grey and sombre as Ichigo remembered them being. Their high peaks eternally covered by a rolling white brume, plumbed the valley below into darkness. The green ancient forest on their sides however shifted with the cold wind, the green emerald colour of the leaves starting to give way to the bloody red of autumn.

It had been decades since he had come here to this part of the world, and yet, Ichigo couldn’t help but feel glad that the place hadn’t changed at all. Everything seemed perpetual in the valley, untouched by time, as if technology and progress couldn’t reach such deep places in the old and traditional Japan.

This unbothered place was a pleasant and calming change, after all, Ichigo had come here to heal and forget the last year.

Ichigo was a twenty-five years old writer who had forgotten how to write. He had loved writing years ago, before the fame and his job contract with Aizen’s publication business. It had been fun at the beginning, a way to express himself and to put down into words what crossed his mind. He could travel to exotic places when writing, he could feel the drama his characters felt, the pain and joy of their adventures, and through his writings, Ichigo felt as if he had lived a hundred lives. Writing had felt like breathing then, the thing he had been born to do, his goal in life.

But then Aizen had wanted the money, the awards and profit.

Ichigo had been forced to write not what he liked, but what the market demanded. His characters had become the publisher’s toys, and not Ichigo’s creations, they had to be blond and pretty, they had to think this or that way, and the plot couldn’t be so complex. The freedom Ichigo had once felt when doing what he loved, had suddenly felt like chains, something he needed to do in order to survive. Then had come the press, the signing tours, there had even been a little series of one of the books Ichigo had despised, and the critics had been so horrible Ichigo had felt something inside him suffocate.

Finally, his mind had had enough.

The doctor had called it a burn out. Ichigo had known however that the chains and expectations holding him had been too tight, and that his mind had just paralyzed under the pressure. He had felt the inspiration leave him as if it had never been there. Approaching his computer had caused anxiety attacks, his disgust at writing something physical that had punched his gut and had made him sweat in cold.

He had known then that he could not continue like this. He had fired himself leaving a rabid Aizen shouting at him his incompetence. It hadn’t been easy for his mind nor for his career. Aizen business was the best one on the market, he had power and allies in the writing world that could destroy Ichigo entirely. But he had needed to go.

Coming here to the old family’s house was Ichigo’s way of taking a breath from the drama, heal, and find his inspiration once again. He wanted to forget the city, get away from people, and just be himself for a while, with no expectations, deadlines or criticism.

However, as Ichigo’s taxi stopped in front of a shadowed path covered with slippery moss, a deep foliage or pure wilderness, and in the middle of nowhere, Ichigo started to doubt his decision.

After grandma had passed away, the old Kurosaki household had been left alone with no one to live in it. Ichigo’s parents had tried to take care of the propriety when they inherited it, and the family had spent summers among untamed nature and wooden rooms, but after Misaki’s death, his father had been unable to take care of three children and the house, and so, the huge mansion had just been kept shut and forgotten. 

At least until now.

As Ichigo got down from the taxi and observed the wall of nature in front of him, he remembered it had been two decades since someone had come here. Two decades in where the house had remained alone and unkept, and where the forest had tryed to claim back what had once been his, and where apparently, _ it had succeeded _.

The stairs leading up to the outside gates of the mansion couldn’t be seen through the foliage, the little stone lanterns who had illuminated the path home when he had been a child had crumbled down or had become bird’s nest, and everything just looked wild, unkept and even dangerous. Ichigo just hoped the house was still there among it all.

From his seat, the taxi driver smiled at him. Ichigo tried to smile back but failed. Sighing, he pulled the bags from the back of the car, payed the driver, and started to move up the few steps, dodging branches and tricky rocks. He hadn’t brought much things, just clothes, his computer, and a few more things to spend the month. Still, they were heavy.

As he climbed and entered nature, he couldn’t help but look around at the forest. It was as beautiful as he remembered, the deep dark hues from the moss and chestnut trees contrasting brightly against the red and yellow maple trees, the brumes, and the silence. The whole place had that ethereal look that reminded Ichigo of the old stories his grandma told them when children, and the memories made him smile.

He breathed deep in the little moment, taking in his lungs the mountain dew, and feeling something within him finally relax and unwind. He was completely alone among kilometres of nature.

Finally arriving at the outside gates of the house, Ichigo took the huge metal key from his backpack, and approached the tall wooden gate that was supposed to protect the main building from attackers in ancient times. The padlock shrieked as he turned the key, the old metal clearly oxidized, but Ichigo punched it two times, pulled it once, and finally, he opened the gate as a little drizzle started to fall on the forest.

The house that several generations of his predecessors had lived in was still as breathtaking as he remembered.

The place was composed of a two-story main building, a Japanese garden with ponds and springs, and a little family Shrine on the back, next to a huge cherry tree and the beginning of the forest. The buildings had been constructed in a shiny cedar wood, the reddish hue of the raised floors and sliding panels shinning bright against whites and golds from the decorations. The roof was curled at the ends in the traditional architecture, and after the years, it had been covered by more moss, making the place look like a house from fairy tales.

It was a traditional Japanese house, where anyone could imagine Samurais and Daimios walking behind the sliding panels, and fighting for honour. Still, there was dust on the wooden windows, cracked varnish on the floors and panels, and the grown vegetation around the garden made it all look like some old forgotten dream.

Ichigo realized he would have to spend days cleaning and arranging it all so he could live properly for the next month.

Sighing once more, he pulled the bags inside the wall, closed the door and approached the main building running under the rain. The once path of perfect stones had been moved around and destroyed by nature, but after a final effort, Ichigo reached the entrance, pulled the panels open with a second key, threw his things inside, and finally entered the house.

Darkness, cold, and the rancid scent of humidity received him inside.

This first room was intended for greeting guests and taking off the mud from the outside -a simple non-important room- yet, the decoration was still stunning.

Carved wood panels formed flowers and stylish designs on the ceiling above, and white and black lanterns, the colours of his clan, announced who this house belonged to in big stylish kanjis. There were boxes to leave the shoes, and racks for coats, and even more decorations near the walls and entrance. There was even a huge painting of the emblem of the clan on the far wall; the black panther delineated in gold, glancing up at the pure white moon in the sky.

Ichigo however ignored it all for the moment. Tired, sweating, and knowing he still had a lot of work to do before the sun settled, he left behind his shoes and bags, opened up his mobile, and followed his dad’s instructions with care.

First, he turned on the electricity on the hall. The power wasn’t too strong with this being a rural area, so he had to take care with plugging too many things at the same time. Secondly, he turned on the water source and let it run for a few minutes so he could drink it later. He checked the gas, and made a note to find wood for the old traditional kitchen. Then he explored each one of the twenty-six rooms of the mansion checking that nothing serious had happened after such a long time.

As he opened up the wood panels and the shoji doors, the house slowly revived and seemed to come to life. Here, protected from the elements and unmoved, the rooms hadn’t seemed to change a bit since the last time he had visited. The tatamis were soft under his feet and smelt of grass and wildness in the bedrooms, some were even mouldy, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. The painting in the walls from the main room seemed about to start moving as he passed by, and even the kitchen, with its old bronze pots and wooden bowls awakened memories in his mind of his grandma cooking and giving him sweets.

Finally, leaving the main building behind with all windows opened for ventilation, Ichigo took a little parasol to protect himself from the rain, and approached the little shrine on the back of the house following his dad instructions.

Ichigo had never followed any kind of religion, nor had his father or any of his sisters, but his mother had loved this little shrine behind the house. The shrine, smaller than a wardrobe and constructed in the same luxurious stile as the main house, had once hold a little statue of a black panther with deep blue eyes -the symbol of their clan and their protector. But now however, the little house had been crushed by nature.

One of the doors had been smashed open by the mountain winds, and the paintings and decorations on the inside had been ruined by rain and snow. Even the sacred white ropes adorning the outside of the little house with so many threads, had broken after the years, and the statue had fallen face first to the ground, unbroken, but definitely not in the sacred place it belonged.

Ichigo frowned displeased. If his mother could see this, she would definitely be sad.

So, he did what he could. Tearing away the broken door, he cleaned the inside, and rearranged the statue with care. He would probably need new materials to fix the thing, but those would have to wait, he needed to buy food and fix his own house first. Taking a few wet cherries from the cherry tree next to the shrine, and a bit of water from the close by spring, he deposited both on the little altar as offerings and apologies.

They would have to be enough till he could find something better.

Leaving the little shrine behind, he returned to the main house unaware of the two blue eyes who were suddenly watching him with intensity.

…oOo…

After closing the house when the rain stopped, and after taking a quick meal of instant noodles, Ichigo had decided to visit the little town near the house to go find provisions and delay the cleaning marathon he would have to perform. The nearby village, a few kilometres down the mountain, and an easy walk on a sunny day, consisted in a few more traditional houses similar to Ichigo’s, a few thermal waters, and a little temple that used to fill up with curious tourist in spring. It wasn’t big, but it had shops, food, and things Ichigo needed.

Ichigo first visited the little hardware shop where he armed himself with pruning shears, rakes and other tools to fix the garden and the ponds. He even found wood and paint for the destroyed shrine, although he was sure he needed to ask a priest to perform a ritual for the temple first. Everything was going fine and as planned, he saluted locals, asked for directions, and found his way around. However, his last stop in today’s schedule, the grocery shop, seemed to be providing a bigger challenge than he had expected.

Used to the big old supermarkets from Karakura with hundred different things and hundred different brands, the little family shop owned by an old grandma, seemed almost useless for his empty pantry. Ichigo observed his long grocery list and sighed. It looked like he would need to go back to the traditional Japanese meals if he wanted to survive here.

Taking a bag of white rice from a rack, and a pack of red miso paste from another, he observed the only thing that looked promising on the shop: the vegetable stand cultivated by locals. Ichigo was gonna get super healthy this month.

After an hour of looking around and making thought decision on his diet and savings, he finally approached the strange grandma carrying two big baskets full of food. The grandma was one of those old Asian ladies, small, hunched, and wearing a faded kimono and a hundred wrinkles, but with an elegance and patience in her every gesture that made you instantly respect her. Her white pale eyes looked ancient, yet the smile in her face was kind and understanding when she looked up at Ichigo.

“You are that older boy from the Kurosaki household, aren’t you?” the wrinkled woman asked him, her voice rusty and old like everything in this place.

Ichigo nodded, checking his mental list a last time and hoping he hadn’t forgotten anything.

“Ah, so sad what happened to your mother, dear, I hope the rest of you are doing well.” she said as she started to rummage through Ichigo’s baskets and click on a calculator with long stick-like fingers.

“We are fine, thanks.” Ichigo answered quickly.

“Good, good. I’m glad you are back and planning to fix that old house. It used to be such a beautiful thing, I’m sure the cat will be happy too. Are you gonna go to the festival this weekend, child?” She said as she finally clicked the last items and presented Ichigo with the price.

Ichigo pulled the money from his wallet frowning. “What cat? Wait, festival?”.

The grandma nodded solemnly.

“The mountain festival child!” She proclaimed with a big smile that showed black teeth. “We thank the gods that live on the valley, we give them offerings and dance and celebrate. You should come too; it would be great, it’s not healthy to spend all day alone.”

Ichigo shrugged counting the coins. “Sorry, but it’s not my thing.”

He would return home, he will try to sweet and scrub the floor, maybe air the tatamis and look for a futon. He would need to find wood in the forest to cook, try the bath?

“Hmm,” The grandma said not convinced, accepting Ichigo’s money, and counting it carefully. “In that case take care boy. Don’t go into the forest at night. Don’t follow the music, and never drink the wine. Protect him and he will protect you.”

Ichigo just smiled nervously at the poor old woman who had clearly lost her mind but that reminded him of his own grandma. He walked out of the shop confused and a bit freaked out. He might need to find a new grocery shop anyway, this one was just too far away and short of things.

He looked down at the several heavy bags he was carrying. The wood, the pain, the food, all heavy and delicate, meanwhile his house was on the other side of town and up the mountain. He was going to be more than tired when he arrived, and the house still needed that cleaning, pruning, and fixing. He groaned. He just hoped it didn’t rain again.

…oOo…

_ It did rain again _. Ichigo was just climbing the road towards the house, just about to get to the messed-up stairs of the house, when the heavens opened on top of him and dumped all the fucking oceans, seas and rivers on him. Ichigo cursed his damn luck, shouted at the crazy weather and at the gods above, and quickly ran to hide under one of the trees of the forest, so he and his groceries wouldn’t get soggy wet.

Sadly, he ended up getting completely soaked as he arranged the bags in a circle as close as he could to the tree trunk. His shirt stuck to his chest disgustingly under the jacket, his pants grew tight with the cold water, and Ichigo just wanted to sob when his shoes begun to make wet sounds as he walked. Fuck his stupid luck. He hugged his frozen arms tightly around himself trying to get some warmth, and sat on one of the protruding roots as he waited for the storm to stop.

He had spent more time than he had wanted to spend in town, and in consequence, the sun was too low behind the clouds for his liking. Maybe if he had been quicker, he wouldn’t had gotten caught in the storm. He still had so many things to do. He looked up at the dark sky wondering how much longer this one would last.

_ And then he saw it. _

Lounging in one of the lower branches, its attitude relaxed, but with its intense blue electric eyes completely focused on him, there was a huge black panther. Its size was like nothing Ichigo had seen before, he had known felines were bigger than what people imagined, but this one was easily the size of a horse, with his claws the size of his forearm and muscles rippling with threat and danger. It still was beautiful as all cats were. His slick black fur was soaked by the rain and making it even darker, like the moonless night, and its long elegant tail balanced from side to side under him in a slow pattern, the movement elegant and unconscious.

It was a wonder of nature, a lethal predator, and Ichigo froze at the sight of it.

What was a panther doing here in Japan of all places? In the middle of the mountains with such horrible weather? Was it even a real panther? Maybe this was some joke, a tourist thing. It was huge after all, it’s big paws the size of his head. Maybe Ichigo was just hallucinating, after working for Aizen, the stress might have messed with his head.

Just as he was thinking that last part and wondering if he might spend the rest of the day in bed, the big animal stretched over the branch as if waking up. His back arched in a perfect bow, his he yawned showing deadly teeth, and the tree under him seemed to crunch and complain under his weight and size.

Then, without taking its blue eyes away from Ichigo, it easily jumped the several metres that separated it from the ground, falling exactly in front of him and his precious bags. The ground trembled with its weight once more, the air curling around Ichigo, but despite the height he had jumped from and the harsh impact, it didn’t make the slightest sound as its paws dug on the mud, and he settled over it.

Ichigo, still seated on the root, didn’t dare to move.

He observed the huge animal glance at him and then focus on the bags, as if curious about what was inside. Its tail still moved leisurely behind it, relaxed and at ease as it sniffed the content of each bag. When the animal finally gave up the bags and begun to approach Ichigo as if to examine him further too, Ichigo almost had a panic attack right then and there. Still, he remembered his biology lessons and knew that reacting with fear or running away, would only encourage the beast to eat him, so he kept still, even unmoving, as the huge panther stopped before him and begun to sniff at his wet shirt and Ichigo’s trembling body.

Finally, it rose its huge head towards Ichigo’s face.

Its eyes were so blue they felt almost unnatural, the colour so pure and bright it looked like the paint some artist used on their canvas. Its fur was also thick and enticing up close, with darker markings on some places like those of a leopard. Hidden spots Ichigo suddenly wanted to trace.

Not that he was gonna touch it. Ichigo knew how to survive.

Then, as if hearing Ichigo’s dark thoughts and laughing at him, the panther opened its mouth. Ichigo flinched, pulling back despite his previous thoughts, instinct taking control and telling him to get away, but it was already too late, and to his dismay, he felt the sand-paper rough tongue lick his face from his jaw to the beginning of his hair.

He blinked dumbfolded, feeling gross, irritated, but definitely alive.

The huge monster sat on its hinge legs after that, and just began to purr happily, its tail moving from side to side quicker now, like a domestic cat waiting for its master to play with it. It was cute. Strange, dangerous, super-fucking-weird, but cute.

Ichigo wondered for a moment if he could indeed pet it. It didn’t look threatening at all, it hadn’t attacked him, and the lick was the feline’s way of hugging, right? He rose a hand as if to pet it, testing the ground, his fingers still trembling with the cold and fear, but before he could do anything, the panther snarled at him.

Ichigo pulled his hand back instantly, and prepared to just run for his life, but the animal only growled once more as if pissed and pulled back. It walked away, retreating from Ichigo’s side, the protection of the tree, and walking in the direction of Ichigo’s house.

Ichigo stayed unmoving above the root for a while, trembling, confused and slightly scared. What the hell had that been? Should he warn the authorities? What was a panther doing in Japan?

…oOo…

After taking a scalding bath, arranging groceries and trying to calm down, the late hours of the afternoon were spent cleaning the house. He quickly wiped the dust, swept the floors, aired the tatamis throwing away the mouldy ones, and turned on the old wooden kitchen. He pulled the old and sparse furniture from under the blankets that had protected them this long, arranged a futon in one of the rooms on the lower floor, and finally cleaned the bathroom he had left a mess. The thermal water that had warmed the house in the older centuries still seemed to work, although Ichigo had to break the crusted crystals on the faucet before he had been able to use it.

Finally, as the night came, Ichigo prepared some white rice in an old pot over the fire, and opened a can of pickled eggplants from the grocery shop to accompany it. It was a poor meal, but he was too tired to work on something bigger and he was still getting used to the old wood kitchen with its woks, and metal pans. He didn’t want to fuck up on his first night. He had already had a shitty day as it was.

Observing the jungle that was the garden and the little shrine as he ate on the tatami with no manners nor care, Ichigo felt tired, but slightly at peace after a day of hard work. He had liked living in the city, everything was practical, close by, and he had his friends and family there, but after the last year, after all the pressure, the crowds and crisis, this felt like heaven. He didn’t remember the last time he had worked so much physically, and his muscles had a nice ache in them while his mind felt clearer than it had been in months.

Wanting to stretch a bit and bask in the nature and the peaceful feelings, he left his empty plate and walked towards the little shrine and the garden, naked feet on fallen leaves and his thin shirt flowing with the rain scented air.

It took him a while to notice the empty bowl of water, and the second bowl now filled with cherry’s bones and stems all pilled neatly on a tower.

Ichigo frowned.

Had someone come into the house? But that was impossible, he had closed the gates, and the protecting walls were two metres high and hard to jump. He knew, he had tried when a child. And if entering, why only take a sorry bowl of cherries? Ichigo had a new brand computer, and the house had some pretty expensive relics.

Maybe it had been an animal and coincidence.

Smiling, Ichigo emptied the bowl of wasted cherries and refiled it with more fruit from the tree, then, he did the same with the water and checked that nothing worst had happened to the little altar after the animal attack.

Finally, he stretched feeling his tired muscles protest, and taking a last breath of pure mountain air, he called it a night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this might be a bit tedious now, with this being the first chapters and having all the descriptions and explanaions, but I hope you like the fic. It's gonna be more autumnish than halloweenesque, but I just needed to write something soft and domestic for a change.


	2. Dangerous Paths

_ “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” _

_ ― Misaki Kurosaki to her elder son. _

The next few days passed at a slow pace among the mountains. Ichigo spent most of his time repairing the house, arranging the garden, or wandering into the village to buy more supplies and food. He also spent the long silent hours of the night contemplating the forest and feeling his very soul relax, he breathed the humid mountain air, and for a few moments, it seemed as if the bad days had been left behind, and that he could be himself again, free and unburdened.

He also went back to writing. The thing had felt too stressful and empty not long ago, but now, alone and without pressure, it felt fulfilling and just right. Sitting in front of his desk, Ichigo let his mind slowly race back to another worlds and lives, and as his fingers clicked the keys, he knew that he had taken the right decision. He couldn’t yet do it as he had before, words didn’t come as smoothly, ideas were harder to grasp, and his characters still needed depth and complexity, but that was okay too, because  _ he could write once more _ .

That little fact made him happier than he had been in months. And so, besides writing and healing, between wandering the mountains and breathing the cold autumn into his soul, he fixed the house and arranged the gardens, and had fun and relaxed like he hadn’t done in years.

He had managed to fix the shrine yesterday. He remade the broken door, he painted the interior with the same dark vibrant blue it had once been, and called the local priest to perform the ritual it deserved. Each night he filled the offering bowl with food and drinks, and each morning he found the bowls empty and clean as if the animal who had eaten it had been starved.

And so, on the fourth rainy day, bored and with nothing better to do, tired both mentally and physically, Ichigo got creative and decided to scare the animal so it won’t eat the offering destined to the panther god.

Filling the bowl with white rice, a leftover from one of his own meals, he put a pickled and aged plump he had found in a jar abandoned in one of the stands of the kitchen. He hated the damn things. He was sure all intelligent beings, even animals and spirits, hated the thing, it stank, tasted, and looked awful. It was one of the traditional meals that needed to disappear from Japan to never return.

Ichigo arranged it in the centre of the bowl artfully, filled the second bowl with the leftovers of his beer, and left them on the altar feeling a bit wicked and sorry for the animal.

The next morning however, he found the two bowls completely clean once more.

Surprised but also kind of pissed now at the persistent wild animal, Ichigo started a competition against the wild monster over the offerings of the Shrine the following days. Each night he prepared the weirdest thing he could imagine: left overs of spiced meat and fermented stinky beans, mint tasting candies and orange juice, he even prepared things that should be inedible by animals like chocolate, wild mushrooms or sodas, but no matter what he tried, every morning he found both bowls empty and completely clean.

And so, as the days continued, as he healed and got used to the house, the little competition gave place  _ to open war _ .

…oOo…

The Saturday’s night arrived quicker than Ichigo had expected, and with it came the festival. Darkness and the promise of rain loomed on the horizon once more, yet, Ichigo stretched over the tatami of his room feeling at peace and content among the turbulent weather. He had written a bit more today, nothing big, nothing serious yet, but enough to made him smile and feel capable. The branches of a plot were beginning to form in his mind, growing slowly but offering so many possibilities, and slowly too, he could feel his skill returning.

Turning on the floor so he could observe the full moon between the rainy clouds and the sky filled with millions of stars, he again ate a piece of dark chocolate feeling lazy and tired, but fulfilled. The forest and the mountains looked especially magical tonight, the greens and reds of the leaves had turned vivid silver under the moonlight, and the little drops of rain on their tips from the storm from this morning shone like diamonds, making it look as if he was surrounded by a constellation.

The brumes kept rolling down the mountains as they always did, slow and relaxing, and the winds and rain he had been suffering since he had arrived seemed to have abated to give way to the cold and humid atmosphere usual from autumn. This place was wonderful, Ichigo realized. Everything was inspiring, and shooting, and Ichigo knew that a big part of his newfound writing skills was due to the house and the peacefulness of the mountains.

Picking up another piece of chocolate from the tablet, Ichigo almost jumped in surprise when a firelight exploded up in the sky followed closely by a second. Their light briefly illuminated the whole forest with a pinkish light and then blue, before returning the landscape to the soft silver hues of the moon.

Ichigo smiled. The festival seemed to be at its best, he could even hear the music and people’s laughs if he listened carefully in the silent night. Still he didn’t feel like going. He didn’t know the people from the village very well yet and he was too tired from fixing the house and cleaning the rooms.

Or maybe he was not?

In parties like this, people came from the close by village, since in such remote lands there weren’t a lot of things to do and therefore festivals were popular. There would be plenty of people from all ages and regions there, and maybe Ichigo could find someone among that chaos and joy, someone he could spend the night with, relax a bit in another’s person arms and in another’s body. It has been so long since he had had a partner, or since he had enjoyed himself, his job hadn’t allowed him such pleasures, and maybe this was just what he needed.

He was pondering the fact and balancing another chocolate square on his forefinger, the little piece beginning to melt, when some new music reached his ears.

This new melody was subtle, delicate, and melodic, like one of those old bamboo flutes old people tended to play in traditional ceremonies, where you had to wear kimonos and act properly. It sounded near too, among the forest’s trees and in the opposite direction from the festival.

This new song was so pretty and nice, so full of emotion and magic, Ichigo instantly forgot what he had been planning to do and listened enthralled to its ups and downs, to its butterfly notes and delicate echoes. It reverberated in every corner of the house, among all the mountain, a lullaby that seemed to want to put everyone to sleep.

It made Ichigo want to cry. It reminded him of his mother. Of his grandma. Of every kiss and every hug that had been ever been given to him without care nor trouble.

Seating properly on the floor, the chocolate falling between his fingers, Ichigo felt his heartbeat began to slow down, and his eyes to close with tears. The song was lulling him in a hypnotic way, like a shooting balm, or caring kiss into his healing soul. It was so heartbreakingly beautiful. It had such a skill and magic, Ichigo couldn’t help but wonder.

Who was playing it? And with such talent? Why were they hiding among the forest and not in the party showcasing their talent to the world? Why play it only to the moon and silent trees?

Standing up slowly, not really paying attention to what he was doing anymore, just needing to see the source of such beauty, Ichigo stepped down the raised floor of his room, and walked on bare foot towards the forest, leaving the shrine, the cherry tree, and his own home behind him, opened, and unprotected without a care.

The forest engulfed him with lovingly arms.

As the first tall trees passed him by, their thic branches hiding the moon and the stars, Ichigo shivered. There was something here in the darkness of the forest, hiding under the ground, and whispering in the cold air. Something dangerous and ancient, something he shouldn’t approach. All the sounds he had gotten used to, the little noises from nature, the birds and little creatures squirming around, or the leaves rustling in the air, seemed to have vanished.

Ichigo just hear the music. Calm, peaceful, and so beautiful it was hard to breathe.

He kept on walking unable to stop. Deeper and deeper into the forest. With his mind filled with curiosity and a strange need to find the source of the hearthbreaking sound. He walked and walked, up the mountain, and up the world, over moss covered roots, and through little springs of biting cold water. He passed a hundred trees and then a hundred more, he saw the eyes in the darkness, and the little lights circling around.

As he walked and walked, the music slowly grew in power, and the little flute got followed by some drums, and then a playful lute. The instruments overlapped, playing with one another, chasing and changing the melody from the crying sadness to a frightening fear. It made Ichigo’s mind ache, his pulse beat unevenly in his veins, and his naked feet tangled between the forest roots trying to follow a tune no human could ever follow. It felt as if the notes were pulling him closer, dragging his same bones, the blood in his veins and even his very soul closer to them. It felt as if they were trying to keep him captive.

Ichigo helplessly followed, his mind now a chaos of sounds and notes, of laughs and tears, his only wish to get to the source of it all.

The big old trees near to his house slowly gave space to even bigger trees of twisted branches and deeper foliage. Their leaves dripped with the silver drops of the rain and moonshine, and the scent of wet wood and life choked his senses.

Everything was so raw and wild here.

He stepped over moss and lichens, over grass and dried soft leaves, and all felt alive and pulsing against him and the music. It was like being among a crowd of people although he was alone. As if Ichigo could suddenly feel every other living being way too intently. It made his headache even more, his skin crawl in anxiety, but in trance, he just kept on walking and walking, up the mountain, behind the music, following the drums.

He didn’t know for how long he walked, it could have been years or just seconds, it could have been lives or just a breath, but finally, he saw a little line of lights moving slowly up ahead, their light blinding, but also following the music’s lull.

As he approached, his feet never stopping, he noticed that the little lights were actually round and perfect paper lanterns that shone with a strange blue and green light. They were being carried by a perfect line of people, one a step behind of another, and all moving in a deep unnatural silence to the rhythm of the drums and up the mountain.

They were all wearing rich and traditional clothes, from scarlet and golden kimonos of several layers, to the hard armours painted with bright lacquers. All were opulent, and shiny, as if Ichigo was seeing a court of old, a parade of warriors and ladies going to receive their king, jewels and gold embroidery in every garment. They were also wearing different masks representing a hundred demons, all smiling at him eerily with empty eyes and grotesque features.

The queue of silent people differed in size and shape too. Some of the people were smaller than a child, like babies walking among their parents, while others were as tall as the trees surrounding them. They also didn’t look right under the beautiful kimonos and armours, as if their bodies were not fit for human clothes, and their limbs didn’t fit properly under the designs **.**

As Ichigo tried to get a better view, he realized more things that weren’t right. Some of the paraders floated several feet over the rest, their bodies gliding slowly between branches and leaves, while others were transparent and so thin Ichigo could see through them. There were horns that didn’t protrude from the masks, but from the face below. There were creatures who were gripping the lanterns with more fingers and hands that a human shall possess, a huge skeleton of empty eyes crawled over the procession in silent movements, a man with no head and covered with arrows followed him. There were women so white they seemed to be made of ice and snow, there were other’s with tails and too many eyes in their masks.

A parade of monsters, Ichigo realized with a numbed mind. Rows and rows of creatures walking up the mountain and following the flute as if the underworld had come and mixed with this one.

Finally stopping at the edge of the strange procession, the queue of people pausing with a perfect coordination of limbs and paws, and, as if they had been waiting just for Ichigo, they silently made space for him among them so he could join the procession too.

Ichigo stepped in line without a thought, not feeling the slightest fear nor concern despite the situation he had fallen into, just that curiosity and longing in his bones pushing him forward. The beat, the music, the sorrow. The lute’s sound echoed again between the trees and among the crowd, thin and eager into his blood this time, and the parade of monsters continued moving up ahead. Following the rich beautiful music in an unnatural silence.

Ichigo lost the measure of time again, minutes passed, days or years, and they walked and walked, and the music played and played among the silent forest, among the watching trees, between the eerie lanterns, but finally, the person in front of him moved to the side and Ichigo’s mind cleared.

Amazed, he realized they had ended up at the top of the mountains, above the brumes, and above the world. The moon looked way to bright and huge from here, the stars could almost be touched this close, yet their beautiful light was partially hidden by the huge tree giants forming a perfect round clearing around them all. Theirs trunk were bigger than buildings, its tops so high up the sky they seemed to cradle the moon between their arms.

Here, among the trees, so close into the sky, and surrounded by their kind, the strange monsters with beautiful clothes and scary masks were gathering around fires of a deep blue colour, and tables of exotic woods. They left the lanterns hanging in the air like the stars in the sky, and bowed to the moon in reverence before taking out food and beverages and arranging them in the tables, preparing to celebrate.

Ichigo approached one of the smallest groups on the clearing, following what the other people were doing and leaving the queue so the person behind him could step away too, and then leaving the lantern in the air. No one had taken off their masks yet, no one had said anything yet, and still following the rhythmic gong of the music in his veins, Ichigo knew he had stepped into another world completely different from his own.

Ichigo helped his group arrange a blanket of foods he could not recognize over their little table, and then, he helped distribute little sake bowls for everyone to drink. Finally, as the last monster of the parade entered the clearing and took his place in another group, they all seated on the ground around the tables and filled their cups with wine.

The music stopped just then.

Ichigo felt his mind clear, his breath returned easy and calm, as if he had been underwater for way too long and needed too much air. His body ached, it hurt just to sit, but his head was still pounding along the drums, and his pulse following a music no longer there.

He observed the wine one of the other people had served on his cup when he had been trying to just think. The liquid was a vivid gold, and it shone and illuminated his fingers with a light warm and inviting, promising a taste of life itself. It was so beautiful. Like the music, like the kimonos, like the trees.

Ichigo lifted it to his lips, already tasting the light, the warmth and the rich scent. Maybe this would calm his mind, maybe this would help his breathing, he was so thirsty. His lips opened, his hand tilted slightly and…hand closed over his mouth.

“You should not be here.” Someone whispered against his ear, the voice calm and deep, like a warning growl from a wild animal.

Ichigo gasped surprised, something in his belly tightening in warning.

Suddenly, he could feel hundred different eyes upon him, the silence that had been so welcoming before, suddenly spread on the clearing with an ominous intensity. He lowered the cup with the shining wine feeling as if he had been discovered doing something bad and forbidden.

The panic however made his thoughts race among the mud, his body still felt tired, numb and heavy, as if he was walked far to long for far too much time. Where was he? What was he even doing here? Who were this people hiding under mask? What was this shining wine made of?

Just as he was about to ask, his head pounding with a headache, and his eyes blurring at the effort, the stranger gripped his waist with a strong arm, and as if Ichigo was a child and not a grown adult, he pulled him up and away from his group. Ichigo stumbled, his legs still feeling heavy after walking so much barefoot, but the stranger didn’t give him an inch. Taking him again, this time in a bridal style carryall, he took him out of the clearing and away from the monsters. 

Ichigo observed the stranger pulling him away, with no strength left in him to actually complain about the treatment.

Unlike the other creatures from the parade, he looked completely human, with no strange bulks or appendages under the midnight blue kimono he was wearing. He looked attractive, tall, with big shoulders and pale soft skin that could be seen between the kimono’s flaps, and that was covered with tattoos. His long blue hair cascaded over his shoulders and down his back in a wild spectacle, and was braided and had little bone and feathers decorations anchoring it in some parts. He had a coat of fur over his shoulders, the texture soft against Ichigo’s cheek, and although he was wearing no armour like the other monsters, he looked the deadliest of them all, the aura and confidence he exuded almost a wild thing against Ichigo’s skin.

He was wearing a mask like the others thought. His however, was no red demon smiling dangerously at him, or some kind weird creature of big eyes and twisted features, his mask was just one of those cat-like masks, kitsunes, with two thin lines as the eyes and a smiling sly grimace in his mouth. The piece was pure black, as if it was representing a panther, and the details and little decorations were painted silver and gold making it look luxurious.

“Who are you?” Ichigo asked, his voice sounding muddy and slow, as if he was drunk, but his mind just fascinated with this man.

The stranger however didn’t answer him, he just kept on walking down the path they had come from, as if Ichigo hadn’t talked, or as if he couldn’t be bothered to pay him any attention.

Ichigo turned to observe the path again.

The tall ominous trees, the moss and the brumes between the trees. They were moving down, unmaking the path Ichigo had taken, but they were doing it way faster than it should be natural. The forest passed by Ichigo’s side in a blur of colours and feelings, yet the man moved as if he was slowly strolling over even terrain.

Ichigo knew it wasn’t right, he knew nothing about this night was right, but his mind and body were tired to search for more explanations. Maybe this was all just a dream, just a product of his imagination and he was still lying on the floor next to the garden, with a tablet of chocolate by his side and firelights exploding in the distance.

Just as he was thinking about it, they arrived at the house.

After spending so long walking up the mountain, after feeling his mind numb and after such a weird experience, the trip back happened in just seconds. It felt like cheating. He looked back at the stranger as it stepped out of the forest and into the garden of his propriety, the light of the moon covering him entirely and making him look even more regal and deadly. A creature of the night. A monster in the night.

Who was him? What was happening? How did he know where Ichigo lived?

The door to the house was still open as Ichigo had left it, and the piece of chocolate he had been about to eat forgotten on the floor. With an easy step, the man stepped into the raised floor, carried him inside his room easily and deposited him into the futon Ichigo had left opened for the night with delicacy and care unusual for a stranger.

Ichigo felt his body sink into the thin mattress relieved, his aching legs and his whole body surrendering to the tiredness and the late of the hour, unable to take in anything more.

“Who are you?” he repeated to the stranger.

But the man only observed him in silence again, with the figure of the moon now silueting his figure and making him look unnatural, the monster he was. Still Ichigo wasn’t scared of him, he felt familiar, as if Ichigo had seen him before, as if they already knew each other. He was safe with this man.

Ichigo’s eyes closed, his mind relaxing in a secure place and his breathing finally evening out into its own rhythm. A hand caressed his face and traced his lips with a weird tenderness in the gesture, as a father would caress his child, or as a lover would caress another, with a love and care Ichigo was not used too. His mind drifted away, at peace, at ease, among a friend.

“I have waited so long for you,” the stranger said between the sounds of the rain that had begun to fall once more over the forest. “But you keep trying to poison and annoy me, and now you almost killed yourself, how had you even kept yourself alive for so long?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supossed to be posted yesterday, but I got carried away by Halloween and at the end I did nothing, sorry guys. I also apologize for mistakes and grammar errors, I'm trying to do this right, but I wrote this whole thing in a month, and please try to understand. 
> 
> And as always, thanks to all of you reading, for the support and comments. And specially to my dear beta helping me. Kisses and hugs.


	3. Of mist and shields.

_ “We can't protect ourselves from everything. If we want to embrace life, we also have to embrace chaos.” –Temple inscription. _

Ichigo opened his eyes to another cloudy morning. The panel that protected his bedroom from the cold mountain weather was open, and in consequence, the frigid morning air coated every corner of his room with a deep grey mist. It seemed as if the forest had crawled into his room as he slept, the deep opaque mist from the mountains was rolling inside the room with soft voluptuous fumes, the scent of wet nature and rotting leaves filled his senses.

Ichigo sat upon his futon looking confused at the clouds in the room.

He didn’t remember going to sleep, and he always left the wooden panel closed to prevent exactly this from happening. He tried to remember what he had done the night before, but the images of a strange dream were his only answer.

He remembered a parade of colorful and dark monsters, the different shapes and forms of so many masks, and around it all, the deep old presence of the forest and the mountains. He also remembered a man. Tall and elegant, like a god from legends. He had carried him with elegant moves and strong arms, his tall and imposing psyche shining silver under the moonlight, and that low and deep voice caressing his very soul.

The dream was crystal clear in his mind, the sound of the eerie music, the scent of nature, the warmth of another’s body against his own. Yet, despite the vivid memories, Ichigo knew that it couldn’t have been real. It had been just a very vivid dream-like none he had ever had before.

He stood up from under the blankets feeling unease and unsafe, because then, how had he gotten into bed and why hasn’t he closed the panel?

Going towards the open panel to close it and seal the deep mist on the valley outside his house, Ichigo observed the landscape he was getting used to. The fog today was so dense that he couldn’t even watch the cheery tree or the shrine from the window, much less the mountains. It looked as if the house was floating in the middle of nowhere, inside cold and calm grey brumes that moved in silence.

Ichigo began to slide the wooden panel closed, his body beginning to freeze in the cold, but just as he was about to snap it shut, the door got stuck on something laying on its frame. Looking down at the object, Ichigo felt his heart stop and his eyes widen.

It was a mask, like those used in the festivals by the kids to play spirits and demons. This one was pure black, with slit eyes made of lacked gold, and a catlike mouth smiling slyly at him. It was a panther mask, eerie and elegant. It was the mask the stranger had been wearing in his dream.

Kneeling on the floor, Ichigo picked the object feeling his fingers tremble, and the last remnants of sleep vanish from his mind. Had it been real then? The monsters? The parade? His savior? What had happened? Did spirits exist? Who was the man then?

His fingers traced the delicate line of a cat eye on the mask, the texture soft and easy under his fingers. This was a piece of art, not one of the cheap paper ones sold at the festivals, this one looked as if it would be worth a fortune. As his fingers caressed over the golden eye, a shadow appeared among the dense clouds in front of his room and below the raised floor. The shadow looked slow and big as it appeared, and it gained definition and shape as it approached him and the house. It was a cat. A huge cat of thick soft fur and deep blue eyes Ichigo recognized easily.

The panther from that first day a week ago, the one that he feared would be there when he had to leave the house, and the one authorities had laughed about when he had warned them. There were no panthers in Japan. No circus walked these lands. This was just Ichigo’s hallucination, and he had to stop drinking and working so much. 

However, now, with the animal looming and approaching him as if it was normal, Ichigo doubted. His mind, his brain, every reasonable thought told him that this was a lie, false, a joke, there could be no panther here, monsters and spirits didn’t exist in the mountain, it was all a dream, or he was going mad.

His fingers however closed over the mask, the very real mask Ichigo had dreamed about, and as he watched, the majestic animal that shouldn’t be here, jumped into the raised floor in front of his bedroom, making the floor tremble slightly with its weight.

Was it real or was it not? Was he going crazy? Ichigo didn’t know what to do. If the animal was real, running away was futile now, an animal that big could smash through his weak window easily, and run after him. If it was not, Ichigo needed to start going to a doctor. He needed help, and he needed it quick.

Ichigo observed the feline, with its perked black ears, its big paws and soft whiskers. He wanted to pet it again in his morning’s stupidity. The fur looked silky soft and thick now that it was dry and fluffed up, perfect to put his face into and cuddle, while his blue eyes were mesmerizing, like the sky solidified into two round sapphires that seemed to look into his very soul.

The panther, however, didn’t attack him or growl at him this time, it just sat in front of him and seemed to scrutinize Ichigo too. Then, slowly, it turned to grab something from the ground floor behind him and deposited a small bowl on the floor between the two.

It was the shrine bowl.

The one Ichigo filled each night with inedible things in a war against nature. Had this panther been the one eating the offerings? It looked healthy, huge and powerful like the last time Ichigo had seen it. Why wasn’t it dead? It had eaten the chocolate, the beer or even the pickled plum that was a sacrilege against food.

The panther waited, looking at Ichigo expectantly, but when he didn’t move, it pushed the bowl in his direction with its huge snout as if asking for more food, its long fluffy tail moving from side to side with amusement and eagerness.

Ichigo then remembered he had forgotten to fill the bowls the night before, due to the strange events and dreams.

He looked around for something to give to it. He had the mask still on his hands, his clothes were a mess and dirty as if he had been walking or days, and his mind kept trying to make sense of what was happening to him. However, after the night events, the fact that the magical panther was asking him for food, looked to be the most reasonable thing, and his body kicked back into motion.

He spotted the chocolate bar he had been eating the previous night.

Ichigo took it, but then doubted himself while looking at the cat. Chocolate was unhealthy for animals, and it had already eaten it once. It had clearly survived that one, with its side it could have been expected, but should Ichigo give it more? Probably not.

Just as he wondered, the cat’s eyes landed on the treat and his pupils blew huge. His ears perked up and it squirmed on its site, the tail that had been moved languidly behind him now swopping from side to side in clear excitement.

Ichigo blinked. Right. Magical panther.

Slowly, and not really trusting the wild animal, or the prank, or his madness, Ichigo removed the aluminum foil from around the treat and deposited it carefully on top of the offering bowl.

The panther quickly snatched it along with the offering bowl, as if afraid Ichigo would change its mind and take it away. Then, raising once more on strong paws, his tail like a whip went mad, it walked to the end of the hall, and flopped down on the floor away from prying eyes.

The chocolate didn’t last long after that.

Pushing his head outside his bedroom’s sliding panel, Ichigo observed the animal devour the little treat in seconds, and then lick his snout with glee. When it raised its eyes to Ichigo once more, it looked dizzy, as if he was drugged, and it started to purr like a truck.

Ichigo frowned. Maybe it had been a bad idea to give it chocolate after all. Maybe he should go see a specialist. Maybe he was mad indeed.

…oOo…

The panther started to follow him after that strange morning. At first, it only took his bowls to Ichigo asking for food, and when it was done eating, it would go lay down on the floor or on one of the cherry tree’s branches, and observe Ichigo work on the house or write. On those first days, the panther always made Ichigo conscious and scared. Was he mad? Was the panther real and living in his backyard as if it was a normal thing?

Ichigo fed it nonetheless, and always kept an eye on it, just in case.

However, as the days passed and the big animals made no attempts to attack Ichigo, the writer slowly began to accept it in his life and as part of the old weird house.

The animal, however, was not a normal one. Ichigo had called it magical at first as if it was a part of his hallucination, but as days passed, he realized that there were some things about it that did speak of something strange. It’s size, it’s blue intelligent eyes, and even the way it behaved sometimes seemed almost human. Ichigo even discovered it reading at the screen on his computer one day, as he kept on working on his manuscript as if the feline was understanding every little part.

But Ichigo accepted it all. He ignored the elephant in the house as he usually did, and focused on writing.

Because, what else could he do? After the strange night on the mountain, he didn’t know what was real anymore. He had never believed in magic or spirits, he had always been a rational man adept to science, however, now, after all that weirdness, he couldn’t deny there might be things in the world science couldn’t explain. There were phenomena and creatures above human understanding and rationality, and so, unable to do anything about the situation, he accepted it all, the magical night, the experience and even the panther now living with him.

He wondered a lot too about the man from the mountain, the one with the black mask who had stolen him from the party. Had he been a spirit too? A human in disguise like Ichigo? Ichigo found himself looking at the strange mask hung in his studio more than he wanted to recognize.

But he just couldn’t help it. His blue hair, his strong arms, that commanding voice and the power in his presence haunted his dreams and thoughts to the point of worry. The man had been a sexy mystery, a phenomenon of nature, and his mind kept going in circles trying to find answers about him.

And so, a few days passed by. Ichigo kept on writing, feeding his new friend, and fixing his old house in order to forget the stranger, the weirdness, and behave like a normal sane human.

The panther definitely helped him distract his mind. The feline, despite its appearance and size, was like a little house cat. It growled at him now and then when Ichigo pissed it, it also jump-scared and hunted him for fun giving Ichigo some heart attacks, but it always slept in the little sunshine that entered through the windows on sunny days, and it kept on trying to steal Ichigo’s pens when he wasn’t looking.

One day, as they groomed the garden once more after another nasty storm, Ichigo attempted to play with him. Improvising a little mouse with some old fabric abandoned in one of the rooms, he threw it at the animal waiting for it to go crazy after the toy, as all cats he knew had done before.

The huge panther however only looked at Ichigo unimpressed with a face that seemed to call Ichigo stupid in its seven lives, and went back to sleep on the branch he had been perched on. Ichigo, embarrassed and slightly flushed for some reason, never attempted it anymore.

The food, however, was another different and very important matter.

After the chocolate incident that first day, and after almost poisoning it with the offerings from the shrine, Ichigo decided to make up for it, and each night he gave it proper edible food fit for the predator it was. The first days he had used the offering bowls as it had become tradition, however, after watching the food disappear in the blink of an eye with a little lick of the animal, Ichigo had realized the huge animal needed more sustain it.

The day Ichigo had offered it a ‘panther’s size plate’ bigger than one of his own, and covered with steamed rice, some seaweeds, eggs, and a whole can of tuna, he swore the panther had actually moaned. That night the animal had not separated from Ichigo’s side, and as Ichigo tried to prepare for bed and dress himself while dodging the animal cuddles, the big mean monster purred and rubbed its head against his legs as if Ichigo had become his favourite person in the world.

Things went much more smoothly after that. They even managed to bath together once. That day, the rain had surprised Ichigo once more on the way home, and drenched, shivering, and needing some warmth, he had just ditched his clothes and got into the thermal bath when the door of the bath opened, and a similarly drenched panther entered the house.

Ichigo hadn’t yet understood how such a big animal could get in and out of his home so easily, but after the first days of futile attempts to keep it out, he had had no other choice but to accepted it into the house. Now, as the big cat padded towards the water, wet, drenched, and miserable, Ichigo knew what was going to happen.

The huge cat jumped inside the bath as if in need. No care, no delicacy, just wishing for heat too. Water cascaded everywhere over the floor, along with his clothes, the soaps, and towels. Until everything was covered by a nice two centimeters of water.

It was then when Ichigo lost his shit.

He was tired, frustrated because today had been a bad writing day, and now he fucking needed to wipe the bath. He started to scream at the swimming panther as a man possessed. The panther growled back, but Ichigo, having none of its shit today, just screamed louder until the poor animal lowered his head as if ashamed, and stopped playing in the water.

Only later, in bed, with the panther sleeping by his side, his fur wet and fluffed up, did he realize what he had done, and he wondered how he was still alive. He looked at the panther at his side weirded out again by its human-like behaviour.

The panther looked back, blue eyes deep and intelligent, and also still sorry and miserable. Ichigo turned on the futon and petted his fluffy messy head, his fingers playing with an ear for the first time since he had met the animal. As he had expected, the fur was silky soft, warm and thick, perfect to rub against.

The panther however didn’t try to bite him for touching it this time, instead, its tail moved again from side to side happily. It squirmed closer to Ichigo as if wanting more pets and head rubs, and when Ichigo dug his nail on his belly, it licked at Ichigo’s face playfully as he had done that first time.

Ichigo smiled. Madness or rational, magical or strange, this just felt awesome.

Settling his head against the panther’s neck, feeling warm and protected, he settled for sleep, hearing the huge animal purr like a lulling song over him, and feeling more licks spread over his hair.

…oOo…

At the end of his third week in the house, Ichigo contemplated the little patch of dirt his grandma had used to cultivate her vegetables and sighed. Located in one of the sunniest corners of the propriety, closer to the entrance gate with its rusty door, the little garden had gone feral these last decades. He didn’t know what his grandma had liked to cultivate, nor was he an expert in gardening, but Ichigo already saw five different kinds of edible plants sprouting and growing.

The good thing was that he was not gonna need to buy any food this week. The bad part was that he was going to need to fucking fight nature and another jungle of vines, roots and leaves if he wanted to eat.

Ichigo looked sideways at the panther sitting by his side, and also observing the mess in front of them. He had followed him to the garden easily. No complaints, nor growls today when Ichigo had left the bed before the sun rose, just deadly glares and yawns of displeasure. The fact that the panther seemed intent on following and looking over him no matter where Ichigo went, amused him, but still it wasn’t his fault if the animal decided to follow him instead of sleeping. He didn’t deserve the glares.

Now, however, the panther looked happy and excited once again beside Ichigo, as if he knew what Ichigo was up to, and couldn’t wait to help.

And so Ichigo set to work, taking out his already used and dirty pruning scissors -they were not going to last long at this pace- he kneeled on the first row of vines, the ones climbing a rotten stick used to guide the plants, and begun to cut the thing eagerly.

A growl sounded behind him just with that.

“What?” He said, snapping at the panther glaring at him once again.

The feline actually rolled his eyes. Walking closer to him, and pushing him away with his big size until Ichigo stepped back, the cat begun to dig slowly into the ground and under the vines, its huge claws leaving dents into the ground, but also working with delicacy and care as he pushed the soil back.

Ichigo frowned and for a while he just observed the animal. After a while, the cat made a little surprised noise, stopped digging, and put his head to the ground. Ichigo heard a snap, and for a moment, dark thoughts of dying rodents or moles crossed his mind, but then the cat turned, approached Ichigo, and deposited something red and bulbous on his feet.

Ichigo knelt and took it. “Oh! A sweet potato!”

So the vines were potatoes, good, there were so many. The vine was the biggest one on the whole garden, and after the years, the roots had grown ginormous and yummy, if the one Ichigo hold in his hands was any indication. They would have potatoes for months!

He turned smiling at the cat, only to find it looking at him as if Ichigo was a nuance.

Ichigo blushed. “Right, potatoes,” he said looking away. “You work on that, I will see to the apples and…are those pumpkins?”

He walked away hearing the panther huff and felt feeling stupid. But what could he do? He had grown up in a city, picking cleaned and beautiful things from supermarkets without caring where they came from. Besides, his grandma had grown a hundred things, Ichigo couldn’t be expected to know them all, right?.

They worked in silence and concentration after that. The panther dug and pilled the potatoes in a corner, while Ichigo filled a basket of apples and cut the big orange pumpkins growing around the fence. He helped the panther dig up the last potatoes, the pile growing way too big to be eaten just by him and the cat, and then, they found a few herbs like ginger or centella that Ichigo dropped in a basket. There was still a lot to do, they had removed a big part of vines and leaves, but as lunch approached and their strength faltered, Ichigo sat on the ground and took a breath observing the other half of the garden they hadn’t yet touched.

The panther approached him, covered in sand, mud, and debris too.

“You look like shit,” Ichigo commented. 

The panther looked at him non-impressed. Then, suddenly, he lowered into his legs, and with a big jump, he pounced on Ichigo. Ichigo squeaked as a huge animal of a hundred kilos flopped down on him, and begun to rub his very dirty body all over him.

“Noooo.” Ichigo screamed horrified, trying to push the animal away, but only receiving a dirty and muddy paw to the face. “Uuugh, gross, you are so fucking gross, you stupid dirty cat,  _ gross _ .”

The cat huffed indignant once more managed to squirm his whole head under Ichigo’s shirt to spread the mud there too as the last vengeance. Ichigo shivered, completely disgusted, having known this battle was lost from the beginning. However, as if he was finally satisfied with his job, the cat pulled away, snarled at Ichigo like a last warning, and walked towards the house as if a king coming back victorious from war.

Ichigo could just do one thing. Taking a big fist of mud from the ground himself, and shaping it into a round perfect ball, he threw it as hard as he could at the arrogant cat, hitting him dead in its furry ass.

The panther stopped in its tracks. Ichigo stood up with quick feet. The panther turned his head back  _ very slowly _ , death shining clearly in its pretty blue eyes. Ichigo began to run. And things got complicated after that.

…oOo…

Some days later into the end of summer, Ichigo was cooking a cabbage omelette for him and the wild panther over the fire, when his old mobile rang. Taking the pan away from the living fire, and giving one last glance at the pot of roasted peaches in the oven, Ichigo picked up the phone without looking at the screen.

The scream almost shattered his eardrums.

Smiling when he recognized the voice, but also moaning because ouch, he also took the peaches out of the oven knowing this would take a while. From the corner on the kitchen, the panther rose its head studying him with what Ichigo would have believed were worried eyes, but Ichigo ignored it and sat on the steps that separated the raised platform of the house from the kitchen built on the ground level.

“Yuzu, Karin, how have you been?” he asked over the phone, his eyes scanning once more the kitchen that had looked so alien some weeks ago with its strange pots of tin and its old woks, but that now felt natural to him.

“Ichi-ni!” His little sister exclaimed over the phone once more, her voice mingling with the grumbles of his father, making Ichigo realize he was on speaker. “You are still alive!”

“Why do you sound surprised?” Ichigo asked amused.

“You are  _ the _ cosmopolitan man, nii-san, we had no hope you would survive more than a week in that house,” Karin quickly butted in, her voice sarcastic but loving, nonetheless. “The general bet was two weeks. Although I voted for half a week, I have tasted your cooking skills.”

“That was five years ago!” Ichigo protested with a smile, remembering the unlucky day. “And your lack of faith in me hurts me deeply, Karin dear.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Yuzu commented, the eye-roll clear in his voice. “She is angry because her team failed in their last match. We  _ had _ faith in you. Dad voted for a week, you see, and I said you will stand three, I knew you had improved a lot!” she said as if it was a big deal.

Ichigo tried to smile while his pride started to bleed for real. “I see.”

And as if on cue, his dad stole the phone just then, and Ichigo heard the speaker being turned off as if Isshin Kurosaki wanted to have a serious talk with his elder son.

“How is the house, boy?” his dad strong voice asked, a smile in his voice but a no-nonsense tone in his words. “I know it had to be a mess after all these years.”

“It was fine,” Ichigo said quickly, leaning back on the floor and observing the ceiling. “It just needing some cleaning and fixing, but nothing big, I had expected it to be much worse to be truthful.”

“And the Shrine? Your mom loved that little house,” his father asked, with no pain nor sadness weakening his voice anymore.

“It’s fine,” Ichigo answered with a sad smile too. “Fixed it too.”

“Nice,” his father said. “Listen, son, I know you needed healing and some time for yourself after all that fiasco with Aizen, and that you might not be ready yet, but do you remember Urahara?”

Urahara. The strange neighbor man who didn’t know how to properly dress and who, for years, Ichigo had believed a pervert. The man that years later, Ichigo had found out was the owner of one of the most prestigious writing agencies and who competed against Aizen on a daily basis. The weird man. The trauma. That man.

“How could I forget?” Ichigo said sarcastically.

“Yeah, well, listen,” his father continued. “I crossed with him the other day at the supermarket and we talked. He had read a few of your first books, and had a high opinion of you, before Aizen. He asked why you haven’t published recently, and I had to explain, you know, the stuff. And well, to sum up, he wants to offer you a job at his agency.”

Ichigo sat up instantly. “Me? But I have no manuscript to offer him yet!”

“Yeah, he said that was okay, that he understands, and would wait for you to come around. Apparently, he doesn’t have a good opinion about that Aizen guy either.”

Ichigo blinked surprised. This was what he had been waiting for. Urahara agency was not as big as Aizen, and they didn’t publish so many books and authors, but instead of quantity, they always focused on the quality. The awards they had received were so many Ichigo was sure he couldn’t name all. Ichigo had even met a few authors who worked for the man before, and they all looked happy and content, not stressed and emasculated like those following Aizen. It was a hella good opportunity. He won’t have to worry about his future and surviving again, he could write whatever he wanted.

“You want his info??” His father asked.

“Yes! Please!” Ichigo asked excited.

They shared contact numbers and e-mails after, and as his father asked a few more questions about the house and how he was surviving there alone. Ichigo continued cooking and preparing a meal as he spoke, the motions now familiar. He missed his family. He was not a child anymore and could survive on his own, but still, he missed his sister’s bickering, the jokes, the feeling of being part of something and being loved.

Minutes later, as he said goodbye to all of them between food threats and laughs, and served the cooked omelet and peaches on the table for him and the cat, he turned to call the panther, but it was no longer there.

Nor in any part of the house, nor the garden, nor the forest, not mattered where Ichigo looked or how loud he called it.

Finally, without being able to do anything more for the moment, Ichigo sat on the table desk ready to eat what he had cooked but feeling worried. The big black cat had never skipped food before. Not once. And they were always together when Ichigo was at home. The big animal was almost like a shadow, like a protector taking care of him at all times.

Where had it gone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all liking this mix of so many things. This is one of my fave chapters, I want a magical panther friend too that helps me fix the garden. As always thanks to my dear beta and to all of you readding and supporting this. Last chapter would be the last one and I will try to publish it on Tuesday.


	4. Under the Mask

_ _

_ “You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”—Ichigo Kurosaki. _

Three days passed by in which Ichigo couldn’t find the panther. He searched everything around the house, he called it in the forest, and in the tree their had met that first time, but no matter what he did the huge feline never appeared.

The fact made Ichigo strangely sad, he hadn’t realized it until now, but in the last weeks, the animal had become an important part of his life. Living alone in such a big house had felt eerie at the beginning, scary, there was too much empty space, too much silence, but the animal had helped fix it all. Ichigo suddenly missed the warm body sleeping next to him on the futon, or the way it growled when he didn’t cook for the animal what it wanted. His presence had been a comforting new miracle in his life, and now, without it, the house felt empty and cold once more.

So today, needing to get out of the ominous silence of his house, Ichigo had once more wandered to the village, and once more he had ended on the grandma’s shop with little stock and the ancient look.

The shelves of the rusty old wooden shop were still empty of the things he was used to eating. There were no potato chips here, nor pizza or even cheese. The noodle stand was still overstuffed with hundred packages of different brands, and the vegetable place announced seven different types of berries on sale this season. Ichigo picked one of the packages wondering once more about the panther. Would the animal like these ones? He had eaten the cherries from the tree, this looked similar, didn’t it? Would he like it?

He turned decided to explore the frozen fish refrigerator, and was however interrupted by an angry presence by his side.

The grandma was still much smaller than him, with leathery skin covered in too many wrinkles, and her white thin hair that looked like delicate feathers. She would be adorable and nice, a loving grandma, if it wasn’t for the glare, she directed at Ichigo today.

“What did you do to him?!” she demanded.

Ichigo, with the package of blueberries still in his hand, blinked startled at her. “Excuse me?”

“The cat!” the grandma exclaimed as if Ichigo was stupid. “He has been sulking for days! You better have not done something nasty to him, the poor thing had suffered enough. He even saved you back then, even though I warned you not to drink the stupid wine and follow the music.”

The grandma shook her head as if she was done with Ichigo, and Ichigo, at last, remembered.  _ The parade with the music and the wine _ . The grandma had warned him about them that first day, and she had even mentioned a cat. Could it be his panther? Did she know where I was? And did she know what all that parade and dream had been? Would she know about the strange man too? The one Ichigo had been obsession over since that day?

Ichigo looked at her with his eyes huge, and his mouth trying to ask one of the hundred questions in his mind but failing. The grandma looked at him as if Ichigo was a hopeless case. She pinched the bridge between her eyes with her long nails, and shook her head once more.

“This is why I warned your father not to go, you all turn stupid on the cities!” she said slowly. “He is your guardian child!”

“…My… what?” Ichigo blabbed. 

“Your guardian! Don’t you even know about your own family? The blazon of your family was painted like that because of him, your guardian spirit, he had been protecting your family and that house for generations, until you decided to leave him behind and go to the city!”

Ichigo again blinked, his mind slowly processing the information.

“The panther?”

“Yeah”

“He is our guardian?”

“Yeah!”

“As in those supernatural-guardians that protect the Shinto Temples? Like the Onis and Tengus?”

“Yes!” She was starting to sound exasperated.

“They are real?”

She sighted.

“…Okay” Ichigo said. Because what else was there to say. “Okay. And the parade and the music?”

The grandma sighed.

“I already told you! That night we celebrated and thanked the spirits of this lands. Those things you saw were the spirits, stupid boy! And although I warned you, you crossed the damn path to the other world, interrupter their celebrations, and almost  _ drank the wine _ ! If it weren’t for the cat, you would have been trapped in there forever!”

Again, a pause. More questions circling in his head. His mind trying to click things together.

“Wait, the cat? You mean the man who took me out of it? You know him?”

The grandma just crossed her little brittle arms in front of her and looked at him pointedly. His mind  _ finally _ made the stupid connection. The panther who hadn’t left his side since that night. The one that seemed to be looking over him every second of the day, and made him company. The strange man who had saved him, who had been wearing a  _ fucking panther mask, _ and who had had eyes as blue as the panther painted in the entrance door.

His guardian.

The spirit man was the panther. The panther was his protector.

Ichigo gasped. He looked at the grandma, but the granny only rose a finger in his direction.

“I don’t know what you did to the cat, but you have to fix it,” she ordered him. “I won’t see him sulking and hurt again, he is your responsibility, and you take care of him.”

And the worry reappeared just like that. Where had the panther go? Why had it suddenly left him just like that? What had he done? Was he eating enough? Had he got angry at Ichigo?

“How…how do I find him?” he asked shyly to the grandma.

“You are such a silly boy,” the grandma grumbled, her eyes however turning tender once more, “You call him, of course.”

“But I don’t know his name.” Ichigo complained.

The grandma smiled tiredly at him “Oh, boy, you even forgot his name? We used to call him Grimmjow, the most powerful of them all, the king of these lands.”

…oOo…

Ichigo returned home feeling overwhelmed. Too many things crossed his mind, from the new job offer to his mother loving the shrine, to the fact that the panther had liked the chocolate, or how it wasn’t really a panther at all. His mind stopped over that last stone in his path being unable to overcome it. So, stopping in the receiving room, with the bags still full and heavy in his hands, and the paper umbrella wet from the rain, Ichigo felt his whole reality crumble.

_ Spirits were real _ . They lurked in the shadows observing him, and walked up a mountain to the song of a soft flute and drums. His mind struggled with the idea once more. Having been raised in a city surrounded by technology and science, the idea of magic was a child’s tale. Yet, since he had come to this house and to this valley, there had been something in the air, in the rain, or in his same mind that had whispered the opposite. Ichigo had tried to ignore the feeling at first, he attributed the weirdness to his tired mind and the stress, but now, he just couldn’t refute that there was something else in the world.

Ichigo recalled it all. From that first encounter with a panther in a tree, to the bowls of food, the parade, or the stranger cradling him in his arms. He had been his family’s guardian all along, watching over him, protecting them all and purring next to Ichigo as they fell asleep together.

That last thought should have creeped him out. Sleeping next to a spirit, one that turned into a hot man and who also seemed to be the strongest man of these lands, should have scared him to death, yet Ichigo couldn’t felt that way. The panther had been a distraction and a companion all this long, a wonder Ichigo hadn’t dared to believe in, but who had helped him felt comfortable and safe in the big empty house. Meanwhile the hot man…well, he was not complaining about  _ that one _ . Ichigo swore he could have attempted something else had he knew they had been sleeping this close all along.

Stupid libido.

Yet the words of the grandma rung in his head, and one more, he felt the worry choke his breathing as no panther nor men came to receive him as it had always done.

Had he offended it someway? Why had the spirit suddenly disappeared? What if Ichigo had fucked up, and chased away a guardian that had protected his clans for generations. Had he really been that stupid?

Depositing the bags on the floor and throwing the umbrella along with them, Ichigo hurried into the house, not even bothering to undo his shoes. Knowing the name of the panther now, Ichigo walked the whole house once more shouting the name of the stranger.

“Grimmjow” he repeated again and again, as he smashed open the doors of the twenty-six rooms, as he walked down the stairs, or looked around the bathroom.

Still, no one called back. Ichigo began to get anxious. Had he fucked up? Why had he fucked up? He had given chocolate to a panther, had it finally killed it? What would his family do without its guardian now? Would they die?

Ichigo walked into the kitchen feeling his heart beating in worry, the panic rising in his throat in an uneven rhythm and squeezing his lungs painfully. There, as he looked around the pots and fires and around the shelves and cabins, he saw a tall lone figure between the opened windows that overlooked the garden. 

Without thinking, without caring about the rain pouring once more over the valley, Ichigo ran outside towards the now very human man.

He was like Ichigo remembered. He still wore the fancy and embroidered kimono that would make many tailors and artisans jealous, but the soft fur coat that had previously warmed his shoulders and felt like a caress against Ichigo’s skin was drenched now by the water. The pale blue hair that had looked so beautiful and elegant back then, now also cascaded down his strong back along with the rain and water in a mess of braids and decorations, and his broad shoulders that had seemed confident and powerful back then, now were down and surrendered.

The spirit was standing before the shrine Ichigo had fixed, his back to the house and his position right under the cherry tree who protecting him from the downpouring rain.

Ichigo stopped behind the man feeling suddenly conscious, a dirty and wet peasant before a king of old, a human before an immortal spirit, but the little pause also made him notice the last detail. The man had the panther mask Ichigo had hung on the wall of his bed.

“Grimmjow?” Ichigo asked, unsure, panicked and for the first time since they met, a bit scared.

The spirit turned slightly. The movement elegant and easy, like a cat stretching. But as he faced Ichigo, the writer finally got to see his face.

It was more than what he could have ever dreamed.

The man was perfection. A strong jaw and powerful and confident features Ichigo suddenly wanted to touch and kiss. He had thin, parted lips wet by the rain, high cheekbones and pointed ears like in the paintings in children books. His eyes were so blue, no mortal pigment could ever be able to capture them as Ichigo had previously thought, there was just nothing that could compare to it, no sky, no jewel, no sea, it was just unique.

He was handsome, a muse for artists and poets. The peak of all creation. A dream of blue and wilderness. A warrior god that needed to be adored.

Yet he looked so sad and broken.

His shoulders were slumped and heavy, as if he couldn’t bear with this life any longer, and the eyes that looked down into Ichigo’s, spoke of sorrow and a being with no hope left.

It broke Ichigo as nothing had ever had. The passing of his mother had been an injury that would never heal, leaving his house and his family behind to start a life for himself had been hard, working for Aizen had been a nightmare, but this surpassed all that. Everything in his being revealed against the look in the creature’s eyes, every cell in his body screamed at him to fix this, and being unable to disobey, Ichigo raised a hand to his guardian’s cheek in a comforting little gesture.

The spirit opened his eyes as if surprised by the caress, but, after a little second, he rose his own hand over Ichigo’s as if to be sure he was really being touched. The uncertain and surprise in that answering gesture made Ichigo want to cry, however when Ichigo’s thumb caressed the wet and perfect curve of a check, it was Grimmjow who crumbled down.

Closing the little step that separated them both, the spirit engulfed him in a tight hug that punched the air out of Ichigo’s lungs. The writer felt two strong arms he already knew circle around his shoulders possessively, the man was so damn tall, he was so damn warm and nice that Ichigo couldn’t help but to hug him back by the waist. Still it didn’t seem to be enough for his guardian, because soon, the man had his face pressed against Ichigo’s neck as if needing as much contact as he could get, and under Ichigo’s hands, he began to tremble.

“Don’t go,” the king whispered with a broken voice against his neck. “to the city, don’t go back. I can’t- These last twenty years I have- I won’t be able to survive again.”

Ichigo felt his whole body turn rigid.

_ Had he been here all along? _ Waiting? Protecting the house on his own, guarding the graves and the last remains of a clan on the verge of disappearing.

“It’s so lonely,” the man continued against his neck, low and weak as if he was in pain. “Don’t leave me behind again, don’t go to the city,  _ don’t leave _ .”

The desperation and pain in his voice chilled Ichigo’s blood. He too understood loneliness. He had lost a mother at a young age, and later he had needed to say goodbye to a family to grow. It had hurt so much, at times it had feel as if a hole was opening inside his chest and sucking it all. He had felt worthless, hollow, empty. Loneliness was one of the worst feeling he had ever suffered.

And Grimmjow had been alone for  _ twenty long years _ .

For a moment he wanted to do nothing more but to reassure the creature, cradle its big body against his chest and assure him it would be all right. He wanted to pet him, to give it all the love that had been kept away from him for so long. He wanted to tell him how good he was, how pretty, how strong, and how safe he had made Ichigo felt here.

But he couldn’t.

The trip to the house had been a small time away in the beginning, just a mere vacation. He had a life back in Karakura, a new job, friends and his family. Staying here had never been in his mind, and no matter how much he wanted to tell the spirit he would stay, he couldn’t make such promises. They would be a lie, and they might hurt the creature even more.

So he petted it, he reassured and tried to calm him down with kind words and little kisses along his blue beautiful hair. And all the while he felt his own heart and his own soul break along the sobs and pleas, until all he could feel was a deep black pool of despair and desperation in his own body. This felt wrong. This was a betrayal. He was killing Grimmjow.

Minutes passed, and hugging under the cherry tree, next to a forgotten house in the middle of nowhere, Ichigo waited. After a while the rain stopped, and sometime later, his guardian stopped to tremble between his arms as if he had been drained from energy. Ichigo took his hand then and walked him inside the house trying not to look into the blue eyes that had suddenly turned so so empty and lifeless.

He started to get rid of his wet clothes once inside, and tried to dry his guest too, then he started to prepare a bath, but the spirit-man shifted into his panther form and proceeded to curl into a ball in a corner. A second later he was a statue more in his room, as if it had nothing left to fight for anymore, as if it was just waiting for death.

…oOo…

Ichigo sunk down into the water feeling like shit. The bathroom was as fantastic and nice as it always had been, the room floor covered in dark soft slate, and the walls made of the reddish wood with a pretty large crystal on the side. It always helped Ichigo relax. The mineral scent of the thermal warm water coming directly from the earth, the feel of the warm stones from the bathtub against his skin, everything in the room was supposed to please the eye and relax the mind.

Ichigo, however, felt his mind unable to relax.

Grimmjow’s face and the surrendered gaze of the panther were forever imprinted into his mind.

Ichigo passed one hand over his face feeling powerless. He wanted to help the creature; it was almost a compulsion in his body. Grimmjow was their guardian, their protector, but it was also Ichigo and his family’s duty to protect the being. The grandma from the shop had also said it, Grimmjow was their responsibility, they took care of each other. Ichigo and his family had been already neglecting their duties all these years, and it didn’t matter if they hadn’t known about Grimmjow back then, Ichigo  _ needed _ to help him.

But what could he do? Moving into this house felt way too drastic, he just couldn’t do it. He was a city boy, raised in and from a city, moving to such a different place could hurt him, he didn’t know how to survive here, he didn’t know how things worked, or how to spend the days. Everything was slow and peaceful here, boring and sleepy.

He frowned as he watched vapor rise from the water surface.

Was that really true? In the city, he hadn’t been able to survive, Aizen, the crowds, the fast life; it had always seemed to consume him. Ichigo remembered the stress, the constant pressure and even the anxiety attacks he had suffered for no reason when younger. However, here, he had had no such problem. Here, among nature, among strangers and spirits, Ichigo had felt he could breathe again at his own pace. He had healed here; his writing had come back to him and had fixed a part of his soul he had thought missing.

Yes, he had friends and his family in Karakura, Inoue, Rukia, and Renji and so many others he had shared so much with. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t make even more friends here in the wildness, and if things got really bad, he could also go back to visit, and they could come here and visit too. He was sure his sisters would love to see the house again, he wasn’t sure about his father, there were too many memories of Misaki here, but that could be fixed too, new happy memories could be done here.

The only problem he could think about was the job. Ichigo knew that after how he had fired himself from Aizen’s business, no other publication agency would take him in kindly. Aizen was a feared and powerful man, and the way Ichigo had dumped the man had even reached the press. No one would want to hire Ichigo and attract Aizen’s wrath, it would be a suicide.

Unless the agency and the man owning it was as powerful and respected as Aizen was. Urahara was like that. His agency was good, the job offer a dream, and the opportunity might be the last chance Ichigo had to continue in the writing world. He just couldn’t say no.

He again thought about Grimmjow, about the blue eyes so empty of hope.

He couldn’t leave him behind, he realized. He had known the creature for a less than a month, and the other was an immortal being he couldn’t yet understand, yet Ichigo knew he would do everything he could for him. He won’t hurt him, not a man with such empty hopeless eyes, it would destroy a part of himself if he did that.

And so, he made a decision.

Getting out of the pool and not daring to empty it, he pulled a little towel around his waist, and walked outside the bathroom half naked without caring, just needing to tell the sad spirit and wipe that look away from his eyes.

Grimmjow was where he had left him. Curled in his panther form in the corner of his bedroom, with his fur wet from the rain and his body shivering in cold, to sad to take refuge of dry himself. He still looked majestic, huge and intimidating, with big claws and big fangs, but now, in that frightened and depressed state, the sight almost broke Ichigo hearth once more.

Kneeling on the tatami floor beside him, Ichigo put one hand on his huge head. His fingers instantly sank into the fur, looking so small and fragile compared to the guardian’s big head.

“I’m staying,” he whispered to the spirit, understandingly and kind. “It’s not gonna be easy, but we will figure it out.”

Even if he lost the opportunity with Urahara, his friends and family he would stay. This man had suffered way too much. It was about time someone fixed it.

In front of him, the animal lifted his head as if waking and looked at Ichigo eye to eye as if to make sure. Ichigo noodled seriously as if to say it was true, he was staying.

The animal rose in a sudden move, his body shifting, changing and morphing back into the handsome man, and suddenly Ichigo was lying face up on the floor. The towel that he had been wearing unfurled and rolled up his legs revealing everything, and suddenly conscious, Ichigo realized he was  _ very naked _ under a very hot man. 

He blushed.

“You sure?” the creature said, his face millimeters apart from Ichigo, as if needing to make sure he was telling the truth. 

Ichigo tried to look serious as he internally screamed, a part of his anatomy starting to get happy at their proximity. He fisted his hands. His stupid libido. But it has been so long, and this man was so damn hot.

“What about your job?” Grimmjow kept on asking. “You were so happy when they told you about that offer, I saw.” his brows furrowed as if he couldn’t believe Ichigo yet, but his eyes had once again turned so desperate.

“I can work from home?” Ichigo wondered doubting. “I-I’m sure I can work something with my boss.”

“And if you can’t?” the spirit said leaning down, his hips falling on top of Ichigo and making him jump in surprise. Grimmjow was also hard. 

“I will still stay,” he promised, feeling breathless, overwhelmed, but needing the panther spirit to understand.

“Your family? Friends?” The very very hot spirit asked once more. His hands were caressing Ichigo’s naked body from waist to collarbone, as if he also needed to touch Ichigo, a petting comforting caress that would mean nothing in any other situation

His eyes however were guarded, deadly serious, a man with a control as powerful as his gaze.

Ichigo sighed, arching into the touch inevitably and closing his eyes. It’s been so long, his body felt so sensitive, so fucking needed. He spat his next words with a tight throat. “They can come to visit whenever the fuck they want.”

And finally, a softening in the other’s expression, a smile at Ichigo’s curse, a glint of lust in those unfair blue and beautiful eyes. His hand trailed up Ichigo’s neck, until his thumb tracing his lips and sifting Ichigo’s face closer to his mouth.

“You barely know me, you have no reason to stay here,” the spirit said against his mouth, distrust in his eyes along with the lust, the desperation and so many emotions there it made Ichigo want to hug him and never let go.

He caressed the man’s face instead, another comforting gesture, a promise, a confession.

“I do,” he whispered with a smile. “I have you here now.”

Then he kissed those lips he had been obsessing with since he had first seen the man’s face. His hands gripped the strong arms he had been dreaming about, and his legs curled around the strong waist above him possessive and needy.

He might look like a slut right now, but he didn’t care, he needed to touch this man and he needed to be touched too. Both of them craving different things but also the same.

Grimmjow, his guardian, his spirit, actually growled against his mouth as he had done that first time under a tree. Low and threatening. It made every hair on Ichigo’s body stand on end in awareness of this creature’s power, and of the desperation and need he carried within him. Ichigo moaned at it and accepted it all as Grimmjow finally answered the kiss as needy and desperate and possessive as Ichigo himself was.

“If we do this, I won’t let you step back,” the panther warned against his mouth, his hands traveling freely now over Ichigo’s body as if memorizing its shape, as if it had also been dying to do this “I will claim you for now and eternity, you will always be mine.”

Ichigo rose his hips against those above him and whimpered in ecstasy when his cock rubbed against a huge bulge just as hard as his. So, so big. He moaned just by imagining it deep inside, filling him and reaching deeper than any other. Claiming and owning him in every way he wanted. Fuck, he was so damn hard.

He felt the trembling hands roaming over his body, pinching nipples, caressing thighs, and removing the towel. The need, the desperation and the lust in every gesture was overwhelming. The words Grimmjow had said might sound rough, almost a threat, but his body, the way he was touching Ichigo talked about a very different thing.

It made Ichigo realize he had made the right decision. His future was uncertain, this wild experience looked like a dream, and he was still trying to understand every little aspect of it, but it felt right. He was where he was meant to be, with the person he was meant to be, and doing what he had dreamed about.

“I’m fine with that, I won’t ever step back.” Ichigo finally decided with a smile, trying not to cum like a virgin when the man began to undress and show huge bulging muscles, and a body made for sin.

When the man picked him easily off the floor with those stupidly sexy biceps of his working under the moonshine, and turned him face down on the floor, Ichigo knew he would have no luck with the ‘no-cumming’ thing. Still, Ichigo with his naked ass raised up in the air, and a mythical man horny and eager behind him, felt optimistic. He might have lost a job, his life in the city might have ended, and his mind might be puree, but he was going to get awesome wild and magical sex for the rest of eternity. 

Take that, Aizen. Fuck you, karma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well my dear darlings, it is done, my second Bleach finished fic, I hope you have enjoyed this little story for halloween, and I hope I haven't left something unsolved. As always thanks to all of you reading and leaving comments, and a special thank you to my dear beta Mykko-chan, without you this wouldn't have been posible. 
> 
> Hope to see you soon in my other fics.


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